First-past-the-post does not represent

For most of my adult life, the vote I have cast in federal elections has not counted. I might as well have stayed at home and not voted – and in fact, about 40 per cent of Canadians do the same. Under our first-past-the-post system, unless you vote for the winning candidate, your vote doesn’t count. In the 2015 election, about half the votes cast didn’t elect anyone.

The person chosen by our first-past-the-post voting system has not represented me or my values in the policies put in place by the government.

I believe that is it time for change, time for Canada to join the many other democratic countries that use some form of proportional representation. I believe that the number of seats a party wins in the House of Commons should reflect the percentage of Canadians who voted for them.

Two successive governments have taken the majority of seats in the House of Commons with less than 39% of the votes cast.

I want my vote to count. I have let the Special Committee on Electoral Reform established by the federal government know that I want to see some form of proportional representation used to elect our members of parliament. Does the committee know what you want?